Juliana Ainsworth
My name is Juliana Ainsworth and I am the last of three children born of my parents, Robin and Sherry Ainsworth. My two older brothers are Chase and Andrew. We grew up on an acreage in south-west Oklahoma City and spent the last 18 years there until it was time for me to move out and go to college. I now reside in Norman, Oklahoma. Native Side My great grandmother’s name was Alice (Gardner) Donaldson (1915-1990). Her parents were Alfred T. Gardner (1875-1930) and Mattie (Bartee) Gardner (1879-1917). She had eight or nine sisters, three of four of which died in infancy, and are buried at Wheelock. The girls’ mother died when they were still young, so they were sent to live at Wheelock Seminary. Wheelock Seminary was selected in 1842 to become the first Choctaw National Academy. The academy served as the model for the school system established by the Five Civilized Tribes. The Choctaw National School System took over Wheelock in 1842, converting it to a girl’s school. After Mattie Gardner died when Alice was 2, she was sent to the seminary school because (according to my grandmother) “Alfred didn’t know how to raise that many kids.” Alice then went on to live in Valliant, Oklahoma in the southeastern corner of the state. Alice is also the great niece of Principal Chief Jefferson Gardner. Jefferson Gardner, son of Noel and Hannah Gardner, was born near Wheelock Academy on July 12, 1847. Politically, he served as county clerk, district clerk, and representative in the Tribal Senate, treasurer of the Choctaw Nation and as circuit judge of the second judicial district. Jefferson Gardner was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation in August 1894. Alice (Gardner) Donaldson had five children: Alvin, Cathy, Carolyn, Debbie, and Joyce. Joyce is my grandmother. Joyce Donaldson married Calvin Ainsworth and gave birth to three sons: Steve, Robin, and Jay. Robin Ainsworth is my father. We have very few records of my father’s paternal side of the family. The Dawes Rolls and Wheelock Academy provided ample documentation for my father’s maternal side of the family. Immigrant Side Edward Peters was born in Mecklenburg, Prussia (now Germany) in about 1820 or 21 (no proof of the exact birth). He migrated from his homeland in Germany to the Texas Coast of America in about 1840 when he was twenty-one. He was the only member of his family that ever came to America. After Edward arrived in South Texas he lived among and with the Fehrenkamp family who he must have known during his youth in Germany. His physical features were described a s being over six foot in height with black hair and sparkling blue eyes. He was also crippled in his youth by an older brother who accidentally cut off part of his foot with an axe while he was chopping wood. His trade and occupation was being a shoe cobbler, a wheelright and also a farmer. Edward married Sophie Mary-Jane Fehrenkamp on February 8, 1860. After the death of her husband Edward in a bout 1890, Sophie sold her 112 acre farm and in about 1895 she and her children moved north into the Indian Territory of Oklahoma and settled in what is now the town of Caddo in Bryan County, Oklahoma. Eleven children were born into their marriage. Two of their children died as infents and five girls and four boys lived to become adults. One of them was Sophie (Peters) Childress who was my great-great grandmother. Sophie married Millard Childress and gave birth to Velma Childress who is my great-grandmother. Velma then eloped with Mont Webster in 1926. They gave birth to Tom Webster who is my grandfather. Tom married Finis Navilla Speaks who is always called Tommie. They gave birth to three girls, Vicki, Sherry, and Pamela. Sherry is my mother. Behavior My great-grandmother was sent to the Wheelock Academy which is said to have been a place to assimilate or “Christianize” Natives. This could have drastically changed our behavior in life. We rarely attend our tribe council meetings and do not subscribe to native religions. My parents and grandparents are now Christian, but I am the only one in my family to deviate from this path. Gender Roles My father only had brothers, and my mother only had sisters which lead to a very interesting up-bringing in the aspect of gender roles. My mother was exposed to only woman gender roles, and my father only understood male gender roles. My parents tried to raise a child with both gender roles ingrained in them. So while I had dolls, I also knew how to use a bow and arrow and would wrestle with my brothers. Later on, I began to exhibit more stereotypically male gender roles (I was quite the tomboy). I suspect this is due to my two older brothers and my need to be able to do anything they could do. I would be more likely to explore the land around my house and play baseball with my brothers than to be putting on make-up. My parents have never said I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. They have been very equal with their treatments of me and my brothers. Memories An excerpt out of a book my great-aunt Amy Speaks (on my mother’s-maternal side) wrote about my grandmother in her memoirs entitled Home on the Hill. “Our baby sister was born into this home in late November, 1932, when winter was well underway. She spent her infant days enthroned in a deep fluff of feathery goose-down pillows and blankets that filled a large bent-willow chair which Mama had placed near the kitchen-dining room stove. From this cozy and busy hub of a family life baby sister had the attention of the entire household. We thought she was beautiful. Since it was winter Daddy was in the house more than usual and he stopped often to talk to this infant child. He smiled at her and chucked her under the chin saying the old rhyme, “Thomas Jefferson Lincoln Lee, Prettiest baby I ever did see!”’ That was how my grandmother got her nickname Tommie which is what she goes by to this day. Her real name was Finis (Latin for the end) because she was the last of eight children. Category:Students